WWD-The Magazine (Spring '08)

installation of work in San Art exhibit

installation at Bravura

group exhibit in Viet Nam

San Art is pleased to announce our second exhibition entitled, “City Panoramic”.  “City Panoramic” is an international photography exhibition curated by Tiffany Chung, features artists Miles Ladin (USA), Takashi Arai (Japan), Scean Mitchell aka Soundproofgreay (USA/Japan), Junko Ito (Japan), Bui The Trung Nam (Viet Nam) and Stephanus Kim (USA).  “City Panoramic” is an attempt to re-imagine the urban landscape and to understand our experience of the city through photography. 

While some of the works examine whether the city architecture fits within the natural landscape or is an intrusion to it, others attempt to re-define nature within the urban context.  These works also reflect the urban experience of city inhabitants through their repetitive mapping, speed and impulse.  Moreover, the artists were asked to digitally ship their photographs to Viet Nam.  This is an important aspect of the show’s concept in which our references of the urban space are expanded to the invisible boundaries of digital networks and wireless technologies, not only its physical landmarks and borders.  In this regard, “City Panoramic” isn’t just a document on the tangible manifestations of the never-ending process of urbanization but rather explores its underlying meaning and structure by investigating the social and cultural impacts. 
 

Please join us for the reception on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 6:00 pm. 
23 Ly Tu Trong Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
Exhibition continues through December 15, 2007
For more information please visit www.san-art.org
 

CITY PANORAMIC exhibition link:  http://san-art.org/exhibitions/city/index.html

introducing the TRAFOLAR series

For over fifteen years, I have made photographs that explore the everyday from a critical standpoint. It is my hope that by holding a mirror up to reality, I can reflect the deeper truths and in my own small way spark greater social awareness.

In June of 2007 I visited Istanbul, Turkey. While exploring the city on foot, I noticed several very small buildings labeled with a skull and crossbones. I discovered that these structures are the transformer stations that distribute the city’s electricity. Called trafolar, these containers are found in parks, on the streets, and along the highways of Istanbul. Usually unadorned, these utility stations are an eyesore on the otherwise exotic and quaint streets of Constantinople, both the European and Asian sides. Due to a recent beautification edict implemented by the Istanbul Municipality, these containers have been decorated with painted murals. Often executed in a trompe l’oeil style, the motifs rendered include the sea, flowers, forests, classical architecture, and boats. The paradise portrayed is in stark contrast to the toxicity of what is held within as well as the surrounding urban environment.

Bravura Gallery announcement

Service Entrance Series

the SERVICE ENTRANCE series

In 2001, I photographed the service entrances of some of New York City’s most elite residential apartment buildings. The maids, movers, deliverymen, and other workers who service these residences use these entrances. Focusing primarily on buildings located in the city’s Upper East Side, I limited the scope to include two of the wealthiest postal codes in the country, 10021 & 10022. My initial interest in the service entrances was due to my childhood memories of playing in and often trespassing through the service entrances surrounding my family’s apartment on Beekman Place, in New York City.

As I started to photograph these entrances and spaces, I became interested in both the formal and associative qualities of the architecture. Visually the spaces include doorways, fencing, barbed wire, signage, and security devices. Psychologically the entrances triggered in my mind the sense of the forbidden, the other (i.e. blue collar), and the hidden. Intellectually I was interested by the semiotics built into the architecture (consciously or not) of these spaces that are particular to New York City. The architecture subjugates class distinctions in a variety of ways including through the design, industrial materials, and lighting. Although these entrances do indeed have a utilitarian purpose they sharply contrast the esthetics found both in the lobbies and the canopied doorways from which that the tenants enter and exit.

These entrances, like the maids and workmen who use them, are kept hidden, downtrodden and at a distance, thereby not intruding on the idyll of affluence. These are entrances that most people (including the buildings' residences) don't really notice, much like the individuals that use them. They are invisible yet they are intrinsic to the structure.

Installations shots from May 2007 exhibition at KHF Studio exhibit

2006 Exhibition at Connecticut College's Shain Library

Installation shots of my 2006 exhibition at Connecticut College's Shain Library. Their recent acquisition of my limited edition artist's book "That Various Field: A Salute to James Schuyler" was on display.

2006 Exhibition at Cummings Arts Center at Connecticut College

Installation shots of my 2006 exhibit of LUNCH POEMS at Connecticut College's Cummings Arts Center

KHF exhibition announcement

WWD write-up

from WWD, April 30:

CAMERA READY: Photojournalist Miles Ladin will have his first New York solo exhibition titled "TIPS (from a native New Yorker)" at Kevin Heaphy Fitness Studio May 10 through June 15, with an opening reception on May 12. The exhibit will feature numerous large-scale prints of images from 1995 through the present. A selection of color images illustrating New York street scenes taken from Ladin's 2001 limited edition artists' book titled "Lunch Poems" will hang alongside his signature black-and-white celebrity party shots and photos from other city settings, such as fashion shows and nightclubs. Ladin previously contributed regularly to publications such as The New York Times and W magazine and currently contributes to WWD The Magazine covering New York Fashion Week, as well as nightlife photography for the Village Voice. "The running theme of the show is edgy insider's view of New York City with a sardonic take," he said.

http://wwd.com/article/print/115299

TIPS press release

SAVE THE DATE: Saturday May 12th

I have an upcoming solo exhibition
at HFK Studio (30 Vandam Street, bet. 6th ave & Varick st), NYC
May 9th -June 15th

OPENING on Saturday May 12th
from 6-9pm

TIPS (from a native New Yorker)
photographs by Miles Ladin

That Various Field in the April Town & Country

Miles Ladin at RED DOT FAIR

Elliot & MacGuffie in Berlin!

Jon Elliot, Continental Drift, 2007

artist friends Jon Elliot and Marci MacGuffie have pieces in "From Our Living Room to Yours" an exhibition curated by Daria Brit Shapiro at the Goff & Rosenthal gallery in Berlin.
http://www.goffandrosenthal.com/br.html

Pan's Labyrinth

My friend Jon Houston invited me to go see Pan's Labyrinth a new film that combines the brutality of Franco's Spain with the wonderment of a fairytale. Except for the violence, which was very extreme although not gratuitous, I highly recommend this film. NYT review: http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/12/29/movies/29laby.html

Alex Katz exhibition at Jewish Museum

Check out the Alex Katz exhibition containing pictures of his wife and muse Ada. This exhibition at the Jewish Museum runs through March 18th.

http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/site/pages/onlinex.php?id=136&live_stat=katz


Among some really incredible paintings look for "The Black Dress, 1960"
a picture that contains a portrait of poet James Schuyler along with six of Ada. Schuyler who was the subject of my artist's book "That Various Field" was a friend of Katz. Part of the same 1950's New York artistic circle, Katz was also friendly with the painter Fairfield Porter who's painting shares a similar sensibility in regards to subject matter and compisition despite strong formal differences. Schuyler who lived with Fairfield Porter and his family for 12 years, was close to Katz' son Vincent who grew up to be a poet in his own right, recently publishing a translation of the roman poet Sextus Propertius to great aclaim (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Elegies-Propertius-Lockert-Translation/dp/0691115826/sr=8-26/qid=1168811034/ref=sr_1_26/105-4639864-4222030?ie=UTF8&s=books)

If you like Katz' art I highly recommend the newly published Phaidon monograph Alex Katz. The cover is of Ada in a swim cap and is a highlight of the Jewish Museum's exhibition. http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Contemporary-Artists-Carter-Ratcliffe/dp/0714844071/sr=8-1/qid=1168811839/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-4639864-4222030?ie=UTF8&s=books

WPS1

I've heard about WPS1 for over a year, but have only logged on to check it out today. Live feeds, archived interviews, some great stuff that will take me a while to explore.
Check it out: http://www.wps1.org/

SVA had a daily show during Art Basel Miami this year.
http://www.wps1.org/include/shows/basel_miami_2006.html
Their interview with Billy Sullivan:
http://www.wps1.org/include/shows/basel_miami_2006.html#sva_casellaneossullivan

You can also scroll down and listen to
an interview with SVA MFA in Photo and Related Media's
Chair Charles Traub: